RSS
Using PayPal
HAPPY NEW YEAR? SOME REFLECTIONS. . .
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Friday, Dec 31 2004, 7:01PM
My new year would be somewhat happier if President Bush became a magnanimous leader who committed himself to doing whatever it took to build national and global trust and to decrease fear in the world. Probably won't happen. We have seen the world slip into a high fear/low trust dynamic that is very hard to turn around. . .and too many of George Bush's friends and fellow travelers benefit from a high fear/low trust world.
I'd also manage to be happier if Tom DeLay was indicted and removed from his leadership position in the Republican Party and House of Representatives. Nearly every policy area I care about would improve with his departure. Congress might begin behaving again as the founding fathers envisioned -- as a check on the naturally expansive powers of the Chief Executive.
2005 would be better if we withdrew from Iraq and replaced our unfortunate engagement there with a more enlightened foreign policy that brought allies to our side in fighting those who are real enemies -- and at the same time finally became a credible and concerned partner with citizens in developing nations who actually do aspire to the benefits of modernity. We are doing very little to demonstrate to the rest of the world that those beyond our borders matter to us; this is one of Bush's largest mistakes.
There is a lot I could add -- but I am going to go spend the evening with at least one influential Member of Congress and other friends talking about what we should do in 2005 to bring down the neoconservative-driven foreign policy of this country and replace it with an international agenda more englightened and more befitting the 21st century than the 12th.
My entire 2005 will be dedicated to finding others who want to take the foreign policy helm back from those now in control. We will be high-minded and offer alternatives to what the administration has delivered to this nation and world.
But we will also embarrass them every chance we get. To win this battle of ideas, some of the fights will be in the op-ed pages and via conferences -- and other fights will be in the courts, in the scandal pages, and in the gutter.
I have to run now, but I'll be writing more about a road map I and others have conceived to get American foreign policy back on a healthy track.
As best you can, given all of the trauma in the world right now, have a good new year -- and think of those who just can't and never will again.
-- Steve Clemons
« Previous Article - PRESIDENT BUSH: CANCEL THE INAUGURATION PARTY AND DONATE THE FUNDS TO TSUNAMI & QUAKE VICTIMS» Next Article - JOSH MARSHALL, HAL FORD JR. AND RAY BOSHARA ON ASSET BUILDING
Thank God for progressive folks like you, Steve. I hope your evening goes well and that a cohesive strategy to take away the FoPo power from the neocons is formed.
Good luck to you in the New Year.
Steve,
Nice post. As you know, I can be pretty disagreeable, however, I found nothing to disagree with you in this post. Happy New Year!
You are a refreshing voice in the winter of our discontent. Lead us on. Ask what you will, and we will be there for there is hope in new beginnings.
Steve,
Glad to hear that there are similar movements at all levels. I for one am hoping that readers of your blog are likewise engaged at their local county and state party levels in efforts to refurbish and revitalize the Democratic party. You see, many parts of this country are without serious local party structure. Here in my county there hasn't been a contested local county election since 1968 - until this year. Many precincts go without committemembers and no knowledge of local voters and voting patterns.
What's happened over the past thirty years is that whole sections of the country have been abdicated through benign neglect. We're now reaping the rewards of this neglect in the form of the "red-blue" divide. One way of countering this is on a national level through discrediting and countering the strategic-level arguments of conservative thought. Another is through grass-roots reenergizing of regional and local party structure. By putting both a high-level and low-level face on the party we can rebuild the message and revitalize the connections Democrats once had with voters across the country.
Best of luck to you. Happy New Year.
With you all the way Mr. Clemmons! I don't think we can look to the Democratic Party right now for leadership (pray that that may change), so it's up to an engaged, outraged and appalled press and ciizenry to have at them in all possible ways.
Steve Clemons -- Happy New Year to you and thanks for a fantastic blog! My family and friends really love reading you.
d.
"My entire 2005 will be dedicated to finding others who want to take the foreign policy helm back from those now in control."
Steve, great to see this focus. Bushco thinks military power trumps and manifests enough economic power and they have sold this false perception to 51% of mostly ignorant, clueless, and intellectually lazy Americans. However, I believe over the next 4 yrs more Americans are going to be 'sobered up' by the continuing economic malaise that cannot be so readily covered up in Bush term 2 e.g. more fiscal irresponsibility with continued massive budget and trade deficits, Bush's war on entitlement programs esp social security and medicare/medicaid, more dollar devaluation with higher interest rates and inflation, continued outsourcing, downsizing, and Walmartization of America. This will likely foster a lowered standard of living for many more middle class Americans.
After the last election I'm convined that the ONLY issues that Americans pay close attention to are economic ones that affect them personally. These next 4 yrs. will be 'sobering' for many middle class Americans who are living beyond their means. Perhaps in 2006 and definitely by 2008 they will know firsthand why Bush will go down in history as the most fiscally irresponsible President in American history and that deficits do indeed matter.
Happy New year !
But we will also embarrass them every chance we get. To win this battle of ideas, some of the fights will be in the op-ed pages and via conferences -- and other fights will be in the courts, in the scandal pages, and in the gutter.
This is the best news I've heard in a while! Attack! Attack! Attack!
Re: "My entire 2005 will be dedicated to finding others who want to take the foreign policy helm back from those now in control. We will be high-minded and offer alternatives to what the administration has delivered to this nation and world."
That's the key - less griping, more good ideas, and let's swing the pendullum in 2006. Happy New Year, hopefully a year that will see DeLay in prison and all our troops back from Iraq.
Reader Comments (10) - post a comment